


People Who Snore Always Fall Asleep First

by HappyJuicyfruit



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Fluff and Crack, M/M, Tired Sherlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-26
Updated: 2016-08-26
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7874500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyJuicyfruit/pseuds/HappyJuicyfruit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is not the story of Sherlock and John's first time together.  This is the story of what happened an hour later. </p><p>--</p><p>"Sherlock tried to stifle the sound with a second pillow over his head, but it made little difference.  John's snores filled the whole room.  The whole house.  The whole fucking universe."</p>
            </blockquote>





	People Who Snore Always Fall Asleep First

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fic that I thought would be cute. 
> 
> The title is a quote from an unknown author.

A gravel truck. Not the sound of the truck, per say, but the sound of a million pieces of gravel as they are tipped out of the bed of the truck, falling to the earth.

 

A chirping bird.

 

A thunder clap. The clap that comes when the storm is right above, and has the power to shake city towers.

 

A child's whistle.

 

A stampede of hundreds of horses, running across a field and never, ever, stopping.

 

Sherlock tried to stifle the sound with a second pillow over his head, but it made little difference. John's snores filled the whole room. The whole house. The whole fucking universe. A thunder clap again, shaking the entire bed frame. Sherlock threw the pillows off of his head and hoped the movement would wake the man beside him. It didn't.

 

A low, throaty, noise Sherlock had only previously believed could come out of wild animals, followed by a sort of hiccup, and then John smacked his lips together and swallowed. His breathing afterwards, although deep, was not a snore. Sherlock almost sighed in relief, but did not dare make a sound. For the first time in the since John had fallen asleep, Sherlock blissfully closed his eyes and began to doze.

 

It began slowly, as it did before. Starting with a deep breaths. Then moving on to louder gasps, fallowed by moans, and squeaks, and deep bellied rumbles. Sherlock is startled awake, again, by one particularly loud wheeze. He wonders, not for the first time, how he had never known about John's snoring before. Surely this would have made its way down the stairs? Had they always slept in separate rooms? Had John never taken a kip on the couch? His thoughts are disturbed by a lull, John doesn't appear to even be breathing anymore. Which is not good, but Sherlock will check on him later, because now it is finally quiet enough for him to- nope, false alarm, a wheezy whale like moan escapes John's lips and Sherlock considers homicide.

 

He pushes that thought aside and rolls over. Maybe if he pushed him onto his other side, it would not be so loud. They had fallen asleep spooning, and John had only switched between his back and facing Sherlock. Sherlock squeezed his hands underneath John's back and pushed. John was small, 15 pounds under Sherlock's weight. Sherlock knew, logically, that he had the physical capacity to lift John. He also knew from experience early that evening when he had lifted John and carried him to his bedroom. And yet, Sherlock was having great difficulty getting the leverage he needed to twist John enough for gravity to – John grumbled and turned himself over in his sleep.

 

Sherlock smiled, perhaps a tad hysterically, and turned over himself. Back to back, this must be the way couples slept when one of them snored. John made the sound of a gravel truck again, but when not directly in his ear, it was not so bad. He grabbed one of the pillows he had previously thrown to the floor and covered his head. Wondrously muffled snoring. Exhausted, Sherlock finally closed his eyes to sleep.

 

John made a snuffling noise, the bed bounced a bit, and a hand smacked Sherlock in the shoulder. The hand stayed there. John was apparently a 'cuddly' sleeper. Cursing under his breath, Sherlock jerked his shoulder until the hand slid off, hoping John's body would take the hint.

 

The hand came back. So did the thunderclap snore. Sherlock jerked again, rather forcefully moving his whole body not unlike a fish flopping on land. Thankfully, it worked. John grumbled a bit, but he backed off, turning over until they were back to back again.

 

Closing his eyes, Sherlock hoped that was it, and he could finally sleep. John mumbled and kicked Sherlock in the shin. With a sigh, Sherlock inched farther towards the edge of the bed.

 

This was going to be a long night.

\--

 

A shrill beeping woke him.

 

Blearily, Sherlock looked at his bedside clock. It was 6:30 am. He had only been asleep for an hour. Sherlock clutched at the pillow over his head and moaned.

 

“I know it's early, but we promised Lestrade we would give our statements as soon as Scotland Yard opened in the morning,” John said. John sounded far too chirpy.

 

Sherlock grunted in reply.

 

“I'm off to shower, want to join?” John asked. Sherlock did not have to look, he knew which of John's flirty smiles was on his face right now. He was too tired to care.

 

“No.”

 

If John was showering, that meant he could get another 10 minutes of sleep. 10 wonderful minutes...

 

“Alright, sleepy head, you really have to get up now.”

 

Sherlock did not even bother opening his eyes, “not yet, go have your shower.”

 

“I have had my shower! I've also dressed and eaten breakfast, up you get!”

 

Sherlock blinked his eyes open to find a clean and dressed John grinning down at him. “Oh.”

 

“Come on, I saved you a scone. You can eat it in the cab.”

 

Sherlock groaned, but he did fight his limbs to get out of the bed. He was too tired to argue otherwise. Not bothering to go down to his own room to find new clothes, Sherlock slipped into his old clothes that he had left on the floor yesterday. He had to walk down the stairs to find his shirt, still dangling half off of the railing. Walking into the sitting room, Sherlock slipped on his shoes and pulled his coat on, not bothering with his scarf.

 

“Sherlock!”

 

Sherlock turned, something bounced off of his chest. With some fumbling, he managed to grab onto it before it fell to the floor. It was the scone. Great.

 

Sherlock looked up to find John watching his expectantly. Had he said something?

 

“What?” Sherlock asked, before taking a bite of the flakey pastry.

 

“I asked if you wanted to go to the loo before we went. Brush your teeth? Brush your.. hair?”

 

Sherlock blinked at him, still chewing his scone. He ran a hand through his hair. Perhaps it had a bit more volume, but who was he seeing today that it mattered what his hair looked like? He shook his head, “let's just get this over with.”

 

Sherlock stumbled down the stairs and hailed a cab. John made some remark about Sherlock's ability to hail cabs being magic, to which Sherlock just smiled. Once in the cab, Sherlock leaned his head back and rested his eyes. It was a bit of a long ride to NSY, he would probably be able to get his bearings before they arrived...

 

“Sherlock!”

 

Sherlock's head lolled off of his chest as he jerked awake. He turned his head to glare at John, only to find both John and the cabby staring at him, one with a face of concern, the latter a face of annoyance. “We're here?” Sherlock guessed, reaching for his wallet.

 

“I already paid.” John stopped him with a hand on his arm.

 

“Oh, alright.” Sherlock got out of the cab, striding towards the entrance, and wiping some excess drool off of his chin.

 

“Sherlock?”

 

Sherlock turned. John was really not understanding what he had meant by 'get this over with'.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Are you feeling alright?”

 

“Yes, fine.”

 

“Are you sure? You've been a bit out of it since we got up..”

 

“Fine, fine. Just tired.”

 

John gave him a sympathetic smile, “I told you not to stay up for three days in a row.”

 

Three days.. right! That was why he was so tired. Sherlock snorted, “four days, 1 hours of sleep.”

 

“What?” John asked with a frown.

 

“Never mind, let's give Lestrade our statements so that we can get out of here.” _And I can go back to bed_ , Sherlock thought.

 

The statement was a disaster. Sherlock did not remember half of his deductions, and Lestrade did not understand the other half. When they had finally agreed on a written report and everyone had signed it, it was nearing noon.

 

Sherlock managed to stay conscious on the cab ride back, although barely. When they finally arrived home, Sherlock could think of nothing else except his bed. He was halfway in the door before he realized that John was not behind him. He twisted around to make sure he had not forgotten him at NSY again. If that had annoyed John before, it would most definitely be worse now that their relationship had changed. But John was just standing on the sidewalk, giving Sherlock a sad smile.

  
“What is it?”

 

“Nothing,” John shook his head, “you go in and have a nap, I'm going to go pick some things up at the store.”

 

Sherlock hesitated, not sure what he was meant to do with their new parameters.

 

“Seriously Sherlock, go sleep, doctor's orders.”

 

Sherlock nodded and went inside, closing the door behind him. He was troubled by John's absence for about 5 seconds, and then he remembered that he was soon going to be asleep. Glorious sleep. Sherlock removed his clothes as he walked to his bedroom, scattering them across the flat in a parody of his and John's clothes the night before. By the time he reached the bed he was in nothing but his pants. He was asleep within a minute of getting into the bed.

 

–

 

Fingers were combing through his hair. Nice, warm, calloused fingers. Sherlock could smell tea, and felt wool beneath his cheek. He buried his head into the wool and sighed in content. John was back.

 

“Why didn't you wake me?” John asked.

 

“Hmm?” Sherlock did not know what John meant, and he didn't care as long as those fingers kept moving.

 

“Last night, why didn't you wake me?”

 

Oh. “I didn't want to bother you. We were in your bed, and I had kept you from getting hardly any sleep during the case.”

 

“Hardly any is still more than what you got. Why didn't you just leave?”

 

“It was our first night together, I did not want you to wake up alone and doubt my intentions.” _That, and the thought of leaving had never entered my mind._

 

“Sherlock, look at me.”

 

Reluctantly, Sherlock pulled his head off of John's jumper and opened his eyes.

 

“Never do anything that makes you uncomfortable, or harms you in any way shape or form, just because it might hurt my feelings, okay? I'm a grown man, I can wake up in bed alone.”

 

Sherlock nodded, “the same goes for me. I am much more likely to you put you in a dangerous situation.”

 

“Yea, but we are talking about this right now,” John replied with a grin, “I also wanted to apologize. It has been so long since I slept with anyone else, I forgot I could snore so loudly. I would understand if you did not want to sleep with me again.”

 

Sherlock sat up, “of course I do! I just need-”

 

“Shush, let me finish.” John smiled at him, before reaching back and grabbing something off of the night stand, “that being said, and I am glad you feel the same way, I bought you some things that I think may help.”

 

John held out a box of ear plugs and a box of nose strips.

 

“If we use them both, we should be able to sleep together. I know you will be down one of your senses, and I know how important that is to you, but I was hoping you would be able to give it a try? For one more night at least?”

 

Sherlock did not bother replying. He wanted to spend all of his nights with this amazing, genius man. John had deduced he was snoring! Sherlock had never been so happy. He cupped his hand behind John's head and dragged John down so that he could push their lips together.

 

“Hmm.” John sighed happily. John made so many different noises, Sherlock should have assumed that he would make them while he was asleep as well.

 

After a moment, John pulled away, “still tired?”

 

Sherlock thought for a second, “what time is it?”

 

“Quarter after 10 pm. You've been asleep all day.”

 

Sherlock nodded, this was not very surprising news.

 

“How about we get some food into you, and then we can get back into bed if you're still tired after.”

 

“Okay.”

 

\--

 

Some leftover Chinese and a shared shower later, Sherlock and John were crawling back into bed together. Sherlock's bed this time. Once they were lying in the bed, each of them opening their new sleeping aides, Sherlock couldn't help but smile over at his lover.

 

“Now, if I kick you or something, just push me away. I'm a pretty deep sleeper. Or put a pillow between us.”

 

“Alright.” Sherlock was already getting comfortable, pulling the duvet back up to his chin.

 

“And if you can't sleep, feel free to leave. Or wake me up and tell me to leave.”

 

“Alright, John.”

 

“And if-”

 

“John?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I am happy you are here, but I'm putting the ear plugs in now.”

 

“Oh. Okay, good night, Sherlock.”

 

“Good night John.”

 

Sherlock pushed the ear plugs in and was blissfully asleep in no time at all.

 

And if John was woken up in the middle of the night by Sherlock's snoring, well, he just laughed to himself, turned over, and fell back to sleep. After being a soldier for so many years, John Watson could sleep through anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :) 
> 
> Leave a comment or a kudos if you liked it ^_^


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